Running The Plan

I have to run. My husband has been taking a Bread and Pastry baking class at the local community college. The treats he brings home have been amazing. There's no way I can eat all of them and not up my activity level. This week he made and shared chocolate filled croissants, almond filled croissants, banquettes and cherry turnovers. And yes, I had them all. They were all fabulous So I have to run.

Today I stuck with the plan. 30 min of intervals- 20 sec running, 40 sec walking. To make it interesting, I increased my speed a little for each successive interval. I really wasn't into it when I arrived at the gym but it felt great as I got into it. After the running, I did a 20 min elliptical workout and weights. All good.

Tomorrow we are going to a wedding so post workout I had a pedicure. My feet feel great and look good. Thank you Ethel. Peter and I will be in dancing shoes tomorrow night. Does not mean we will dance but we will be in dancing shoes.

Moderation Ain't My Style

I'm in the middle of week two of my comeback. I was so excited to run yesterday I KNOW that this is suppose to take time. I KNOW that I should stick to the plan. I KNOW that I should keep the running intervals short and the overall time low. BUT no, I had to run a few minutes straight rather than the predetermined 20 sec intervals, run the intervals at an 8:10 pace instead of a 10 min or greater pace and run an hour instead of 30 min. Today, I am a bit sore (I followed the run with weight training) and feel a few twinges in my leg but I think I survived my indiscretion. However, I think I was lucky. Tomorrow I go back on plan. But man it felt good to go a little faster and a little farther. Patience is not my strong point.

Week One

The restart is going well. Today I finished week one of the program with 30 min of 15 sec run/ 45 sec walk intervals. Some of those run segments were more like 20 sec as I couldn't get the touch pad on the treadmill to respond quickly. I'm trying to keep the run segments at or around a 9:13 pace. I have a little tightness in my leg after sitting for awhile but other than that, it's going well. Followed up the treadmill with weights

Temperatures are at inferno levels here in the Midwest. Having grown up in NY weather like this is unknown to me. I've lived in Chicagoland for nearly 25 years and although we've seen 100 before never multiple days of it. I find this really scary as I think this is how it will be for the rest of my life. Sure we will have a few cool summers but overall it will be warmer and warmer.

At least someone is enjoying the summer ...

Hot, Hot, Hot

The come back is going really well (fingers crossed.)  It seems mighty slow, so little actual running but nothing hurts and I can see that the slow progression is the right thing to do.  The 15 seconds running intervals I'm doing at about a 9:40 pace, not too fast, not too slow (remember my age here.)  For those 15 minutes, I feel absolute joy!

The Midwest is unbearably hot at the moment.  Chicagoland is looking at three days in a row with 100+ temperatures.  This was taken at 2:00 PM in the shade...

Way too hot to run outside.  So I did my 25 minutes of 15 sec run/45 sec walk intervals on the treadmill at the gym.  It felt great and nothing hurts at the moment.  Part of my return is to be much more diligent about weight training.  I pretty much had forsaken weight training for running - probably part of the reason I got injured.  This time out, weight training at least 3 times a week.  This afternoon I did 25 minutes of weight training following my run.

I had a funny experience at the gym today.  I'm such a creature of habit. I like to use a particular treadmill at the gym because it handles intervals very well.  The path I take to the treadmill is the short route.  Today, there was a woman coming through from the other direction (there's only room for one) and it really threw me.  The irony of the situation did not escape me.  I'm at the gym to get exercise but I take the short cut to the treadmill!  I do park at the opposite end of the parking lot, even today in the oppressive heat.

Happy Independence Day!

Walking Counts Too

Day 2 of the Runners World come back program is a 30 to 60 min walk. Walking seems like such a let down after a little running but I am not going to push this. My nature is to go full steam ahead and ignore the signs that I am over doing it. Not this time. The 3 months off has been too difficult. So walk it was.

To give the walk a purpose, I headed out to the local Walgreen's to return a movie at the Redbox. It was very humid and close to 90 degrees. That 3.5 mile walk felt like a 5 mile run. I was totally drenched when I walked back in the house. I'm looking forward to a little more running tomorrow on the treadmill. I read somewhere ( probably Runners World) that people coming off stress fractures should run for about 6 weeks on a treadmill before heading outside. Makes sense to me and frankly until the weather cools off, I'm ok with going to the gym and using the treadmill. After running, I can get a few pool laps in

As an aside, if you've never used Redbox, what a great concept. $1 per movie if you return them overnight. I watched J Edgar with Leonardo Dicaprio. The bad makeup job in aging the characters was very distracting but a good movie nonetheless.